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Saturday, June 01, 2013

The Internet And Muslim Radicalization versus Acceptance Of Western Culture

It seems that the Internet is both a great way to either radicalize Muslims, at least the young, lone-wolf types:

Older Muslims are at a loss as to how the Internet, more than the mosque, is influencing the radicalization of their youth, according to Peter Neumann, the founding director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London.Neumann, at a New America Foundation panel this week, argued that Muslim extremists considered to be “lone wolves” are “people who are extremely active and extremely social” online.Socially isolated, lone actors — who are typically thought of as “lone wolves” — are “only a very small minority,” he said.

[snip]“But that’s what these people do. They’re hanging out in online extremist forums for 10-12 hours a day, and if you asked them, Who are your best friends,’ they would give you five names of people they’ve never met and whose real names they actually don’t know,” said Neumann.

Or, according to a Pew Research, get them to not hate Western culture so much. That is, I would assume, if they have access to the Internet, and Western sites are not censored.

Muslims outside the United States who use the Internet are more likely to have a favorable opinion of Western popular culture than those who don’t go online, the Pew Research Center said Friday.[snip]Focusing on 25 countries with enough Muslims using the Internet to allow a detailed analysis, Pew found that Muslims who go online are more inclined to like Western movies, music and television.“They are (also) somewhat less inclined to say that Western entertainment is harming morality in their country,” said Pew, which posted its analysis on its www.pewforum.org website.

Who would have thought the Internet had such power to influence in both a positive and negative manner.